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Northern line

The full reintegration of former "TubeLines" engineering maintenance work on the Jubilee, Northern, and Piccadilly Lines into LUL represents the culmination of a years-long union campaign to bring outsourced work back in house. Their continued outsourcing was a legacy of the disastrous "Public Private Partnership".

Recent heavy rainfall led to serious flooding at many stations, including Balham. Maintenance workers put bright green dye in the water supply to identify exactly where the flooding was originating, making the station look like it had been attacked by Slimer from Ghostbusters.

Incidents like this, as well as recent leakage problems at Oxford Circus, show some serious deficiencies in basic infrastructural maintenance. Years of budget cuts and outsourcing of maintenance work can't have helped.

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Remember that promise that there would be no detriment arising from the implementation of Night Tube? Remember that promise in the Pay and Night tube dispute settlement that work-life balance would not get worse and would get better where possible?

Well, those promises look like a sick joke to the 42 drivers across the combine facing forced displacement from their depots to depots an hour or more from where they work now.

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Union reps have been pushing for the cleaners' storeroom at Hendon Central to be moved from its current location, which beyond the safety barrier. Cleaners don't quite have to walk onto the track to access it, but it's not far off.

ISS and LU say that, because cleaners' "Sentinel Cards" require them to be PTS accredited, they are licensed to go on or near the track to access their storeroom.

At best this is an inconvenient location for a storeroom, that cleaners need to access regularly. At worst it's downright dangerous.

RMT has begun balloting is driver members across the combine for strikes to protest at the unfair sacking of Northern Line driver Alex McGuigan. Tubeworker urges all our RMT-member T/Op readers to vote yes.

The issue at the heart of the dispute is a simple one. The procedure used to sack Alex was flawed and unfair. After he failed a breathalyser test, Alex’s urine sample was only tested for drugs, when LU’s Drugs & Alcohol Policy clearly states it should have also been tested for alcohol.

RMT reps and activists were feeling rightly chuffed with themselves on the picket line at Morden train crew depot this morning (1 December).

A majority of members of both RMT and ASLEF showed support for the strike for the reinstatement of sacked train driver Alex McGuigan. LU had to run a special service in the morning peak. By late morning, reps estimated around 13 out of 50 drivers had booked on; the car park was no way near as busy as usual.

Alex McGuigan, a Northern Line driver at the Mordern depot with 29 years' service, was unjustly sacked by London Underground after he failed a breathalyser test which failed to take his Type-2 diabetes (which can trigger false positives) into account, and after which the company failed to test his urine sample for alcohol (testing it only for drugs, then destroying it).

A strike ballot for RMT driver members at the Morden depot on the Northern Line closes tomorrow (18 November). The strike is to demand reinstatement for Alex McGuigan, a Northern Line driver and RMT member with 29 years' service, who was unfairly sacked after a breathalyser test gave a positive reading but didn't take into account his Type-2 Diabetes or test his urine sample.

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Tubeworker

Tubeworker: a platform for rank-and-file London Underground workers, telling you what the bosses and bureaucrats won't. Tubeworker reports on workplace issues, puts forward strategies that we think will help workers win, and supports militant, democratic trade unionism. It promotes unity and challenges inequality.

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